SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU FILOZOFSKI FAKULTET

Their core work

The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb is Croatia's leading institution for social science and humanities research, with deep expertise in cultural sociology, migration studies, and political discourse analysis. They contribute applied social research to EU projects — from building frameworks for measuring the societal impact of SSH research, to studying forced displacement and refugee integration, to analyzing how political messaging around gender and sexuality is received by ordinary citizens. Their work bridges academic social science with real-world policy relevance, particularly in Central and Southeast European contexts.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2019), Zagreb's humanities faculty focused on meta-level questions about how social sciences create impact — co-creation, knowledge exchange, open innovation, and the "quadruple helix" model connecting academia with society. From 2019 onward, they shifted decisively toward substantive social research on politically charged topics: refugee integration, gender politics, and public reception of ideological messaging. This evolution shows a move from studying HOW social science creates value to actually producing that value on sensitive societal questions.

They are moving toward applied research on politically sensitive social issues (migration, gender, media framing), positioning themselves as a go-to partner for projects requiring Southeast European perspectives on societal challenges.

How they like to work

Primarily a participant in larger consortia (4 of 6 projects), with one coordinator role in their most recent substantive project (Sense AGENDa), suggesting growing confidence and leadership ambition. With 83 unique partners across 28 countries, they are well-connected across Europe despite being a mid-sized contributor. Their diverse funding schemes (RIA, CSA, MSCA-ITN, MSCA-IF) indicate flexibility — they can contribute as a research partner, training host, or infrastructure node depending on what the consortium needs.

A well-networked institution with 83 consortium partners across 28 countries, giving them broad European reach. Their network spans from Western European research universities to Southeast European institutions, making them a useful bridge for consortia seeking geographic diversity.

What sets them apart

As Croatia's flagship humanities faculty, they bring a Central/Southeast European perspective that many Western-dominated consortia lack — valuable both for geographic balance in proposals and for substantive research on migration, political discourse, and social cohesion in the region. Their combination of methodological expertise in cultural and political sociology with practical experience in SSH impact measurement is uncommon. For consortium builders, they offer a credible academic partner from an underrepresented EU-13 country with genuine research capacity, not just a flag-of-convenience participant.

Highlights from their portfolio

• Cleopatra
  Their largest funded project (EUR 474K) — a Marie Curie training network combining NLP and multilingual analytics, showing unexpected computational capacity for a humanities faculty.
• Sense AGENDa
  Their only coordinator role, studying public reception of anti-gender messaging — signals their leadership ambition and expertise in politically sensitive societal research.
• FOCUS
  Substantial funding (EUR 334K) for refugee integration research, directly relevant to ongoing EU policy priorities on migration and social cohesion.